The Mighty Return Of Columbus Day

The story of Christopher Columbus has been part of the legend and lore of America for hundreds of years, along with beautiful books for children and the unforgettable Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, plus all the sufferings of that journey. It served as a constant reminder to be grateful for the sacrifices of our ancestors, to adopt a piety towards the past.

No story like this is without blemishes, of course.

The journey did bring the Spanish Empire to the Americas complete with exploitation of natural resources, the furtherance of the slave trade, and new strains of infectious disease (an issue that deserves a separate thoughtful treatment).

At the same time, the coming of the empire also brought technology, Christianity, human rights (eventually), civilized standards of law, jury trials, religious freedom eventually, and opened up half the world to development along with prosperity.

It’s a mixed record because history is complicated.

All history is complicated. In looking at large shifts in population movements and empires, we should give up looking for only saints or only demons. The real story of history is a mixture of both plus institutions and interests that provide mitigation and migration between the two.

The trouble with the anti-Columbus movement born decades ago is that it overvalorized native culture and then created a caricature of the colonial forces that expanded the reach of European culture and people. It did this on ideological grounds rooted in a conviction that all the achievements of the West are rooted in violence. This position was always unsustainable.

As for the indigenous peoples of what is called the United States today, they have never been called that name in all U.S. history. They were native Americans wrongly called Indians simply because Columbus had believed he had reached the East Indies, but he was actually at what was later called the Caribbean or West Indies. The name Indian stuck.

You can discern the dominant attitude toward the natives by looking at the lore of American history. Thomas Jefferson celebrated the culture of the Indians—their deep traditions of independence and bravery—and proudly displayed artifacts in his home. Our coinage also celebrated the Indians, and it remains true now that prominent people proudly brag if they detect even the slightest hint of American Indian.

Here too, the history is not one of good and evil but a mixture. My old family moved from a comfortable stability in New England in 1830 to settle Southwest Texas (it is still not “settled”). Doing so involved cooperative relationships with a huge diverse population that now included Spanish settlers, many and diverse native tribes, plus European migrants from Germany and elsewhere.

There were peaceful trading relations with the Karankawa and other tribes but wars and battles against the hated Apaches and Comanches. The settlers wanted a good life on land that was vast and unsettled, and sought only to protect their families and property against attack. Just as it is overly romanticized to see the settlers as peaceful humanitarians, it’s a stretch to see the savage violence perpetuated by ravaging natives as some kind of anti-colonial resistance.

Again, history is complicated. But in the big picture, what the European settlers achieved in the Americas gave birth to a civilization that built the modern world, wrote constitutions that restrained power, built the cathedrals and cities, brought high art and music, conceived of the idea of human rights, and finally ended slavery on moral grounds.

Is this worth celebrating? It certainly is.

Columbus Day? Absolutely.

It is now wholly and entirely back thanks to a bold Executive Order by Donald Trump. It comes at a time when elite culture in the United States and most of Europe and the UK has lost confidence in all the achievements of the past. A kind of self-loathing has taken over the highest ranks, an attitude born of ingratitude and ignorance toward the tremendous sacrifices made by their own ancestors.

The lack of confidence in the Western idea is obvious in all elite art trends. Today at the Canterbury Cathedral in London, you can see an exhibit of graffiti strewn throughout the cathedral. It’s meant to look like a subway or an urban street taken over by vandals. It was not done by street criminals but elite artists living on grants. This is supposed to be art, and it is fully approved by the dumbest ecclesiocrats ever to hold power.

The history of this cathedral traces to the 6th century, when St. Augustine built the first Christian church in that spot. The construction of the cathedral began in 1067, and took hundreds of years before it was complete. It is the oldest cathedral in London and the very embodiment of the sacrifice, diligence, and resulting magnificence of the Western idea, which boils down to an incredible confidence in the capacity of man, in obedience of God, to rise above the state of nature.

Now the elites are bringing back barbarism and calling it art. The curators are literally desecrating the sacred space and inviting the public in to view the results. Each time something like this happens, one hopes that this will be the last straw, the incident to wake up the masses as to what is really going on and the unfathomable corruption that traces to the top of the social hierarchy.

When the Cathedral of Notre Dame burned in 2019, as a foreshadowing of the hellish years that would follow, we worried that it would be reconstructed according to postmodern standards, with displays of impiety towards the past. That did not happen, thanks to a populist push and plenty of funding from philanthropists who made sure that it would come back more wonderful than ever.

As for London and the politics of the UK, we have dived further down the hole of barbarism and despotism than anyone really thought possible. Maybe the official desecration of the Cathedral will be the trigger finally to turn this disaster around? It will take courageous leadership in politics, religion, arts, education, and in every walk of life to make it possible. One can only hope that it is not too late.

The reemergence of Columbus Day in the United States is a wonderful sign of a possible turnaround. It makes us optimistic that civilization can be saved after all. We need more. Bring back the 19th-century stories of the Founding Fathers. Stop the trashing of geniuses like Thomas Jefferson and the deprecation of that entire generation. Study and learn the real history of this great country.

America may yet lead the way back to the light. The battle is far from over. It has barely begun. Meanwhile, if you happen to encounter any tenured professor at an Ivy League university who wishes you a happy Columbus Day, give him a thumbs-up. He is certainly a lonely figure.

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SOURCE

Header featured image (edited) credit: (Image credit: Shutterstock) Emphasis added by (TLB)

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Stay tuned…